Autumn 2007

General News

We have reached the end of an interesting summer.  Not only have we had a smaller than expected maize crop but increased demand for maize for bioethanol production (US production increased by 25% in 2006) has put global maize prices under pressure. The strengthening of the Rand and news of increased maize plantings in the US has given us a measure of relief.

Currently ethanol is subsidised by 51 US cents/gallon (about R2.50/ litre). It is likely that ethanol production will increase, causing global maize prices to increase.  The US National Chicken Council claim that maize prices to poultry doubled to January 2007 and that this had caused an increase in selling prices of poultry by 6 cents/lb (about R 1.00/kg.).

The irony is that if the entire US maize crop were to be used for ethanol production, it would give rise to only 16% of that countries fuel requirement. 

By-products from the biofuels industry, namely Distillers’ Dried Grains and Solubles (DDGS) and oilcake meal supplies are likely to increase.  This may well cause protein prices to soften.

By the time that you read this, feed prices will have increased by about 50% in the last year. The net effect of this is that the Feed:Product ratios will narrow, influencing the production strategies to be used on farm.

When feed costs increase then the fixed costs associated with production become less important.  Possibly the only strategy to follow is to improve the technical performance on the farm, maximizing the return per unit space per unit time (R per m²/day).

In the case of broilers, this can be brought about by reducing stocking density, which will lead to improved growth, reduced mortality and improved feed conversion.  Laying hens generally produce at so close to their genetic potential, that there is little opportunity for bringing about dramatic changes in performance.

Pig producers may well want to use this opportunity to cull less than perfect sows. Reducing stocking density in grow-out pens will also lead to improved performance.

Remember that those strategies that result in the high returns in good times also keep losses at a minimum in bad times.  Do not be tempted to reduce feed specifications to “save” money.

Pig and Poultry Nutrition Courses

This years Poultry Nutrition Course will be held at the Country Club at Woodmead from the 17^th to 19^th of September.  We will hold a one-day pig nutrition course on the 20^th of September but will only do this if enough people wish to attend.

Please let Bianca know if you are interested in attending either course.

Broilers and Anti-Biotics

Following the information contained in the last issue of SPESFEED NEWS on the feeding of anti-biotics (AGP’s) to broilers, some more interesting information has been published. Not only does it argue that the use of AGP’s is not cost effective, but also highlights concerns about their continued use.  Perhaps most significantly, it reports on what action the new Democrat order in US politics intend to take with regards to AGP usage.

Graham and co-workers of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health have just published a paper entitled "Growth Promoting Antibiotics in Food Animal Production: An Economic Analysis" in the January-February issue of Public Health Reports. 

They found that the use of AGP’s in broiler diets is a financial loser for poultry producers. Using data from poultry giant Perdue, the researchers found that antibiotics slightly accelerated chicken growth, but that the benefit was offset by the cost of purchasing antibiotics, with the total cost rising by about one penny per chicken.

This finding is in line with a 2002 study by researchers at Kansas State University showing that the use of growth-promoting antibiotics provided no economic benefits during the "finishing" stage of pig production.

Medical and public health experts have long decried the use of AGP’s as an important cause of antibiotic-resistant infections.  Europe has banned the use of growth promoting antibiotics for this reason. Agricultural and pharmaceutical interests have defended the practice by arguing that GPAs are needed for efficient farm production, an argument that this new study refutes using the poultry industry's own data.     

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has failed to take action to curtail the widespread use of antibiotics important in human medicine as farm animal feed additives. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that 70% of all antibiotics used in the U.S. , nearly 25 million pounds annually, is used as feed additives for chicken, hogs, and beef cattle.     

Perdue and three other large poultry producers, Tyson, Gold Kist, and Foster Farms, say they no longer use antibiotics to promote growth. However, because the government does not collect drug use data, there is no way to verify these claims. In addition, companies such as McDonald's and Compass Group, a large contract food service company, have adopted policies that prohibit the purchase of certain meats if the animals were fed antibiotics important in human medicine.     

Proposed federal legislation, The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, sponsored by incoming Senate Health Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-MA), would phase out the use of antibiotics that are important in human medicine as animal feed additives within two years. The American Medical Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the American Academy of Paediatrics are among the more than 350 health, agriculture and other groups nationwide that have endorsed this bill.

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FORMAT INTERNATIONAL

In February, I attended the Format International agents meeting in Bariloche , Argentina .  Bariloche is in the foothills of the Andes Mountains and was surprisingly cool for mid-summer.  It is also stunningly beautiful.

I am pleased to be able to report that Format have continued in their efforts to improve their system, without sacrificing any of the numerical stability that we have all come to depend upon. 

Although Format NC is true Windows based 32  bit software, it is not very “Microsoft” like in its “look and feel”.  Many of the changes implemented will make the system more familiar to Windows users.

Perhaps the most important addition to the new version of the Format suite of programs is the addition of a “Report” option to the menu.  This allows the user to set up reports by column in a spreadsheet like manner, and then copy this to any other application.  More interesting, is that it is possible to edit this data.  Format has also created a report writing package called “Freeform”, which allows users to create their own report templates and thus their own custom designed reports.

Format has always used its own proprietary database, for two reasons, speed and stability.  Their new ODBC driver allows the user to access the information in this database and dump it into another application, for example a spreadsheet.

There have been many other changes to the Format system, the most significant of which are the improvements to Tracer.  It is now possible to archive old data, reducing the size of the data set with which you are working with.  It is also possible to run a Biosecurity check on each scenario before they are added to the database and/or implemented.

The guest speaker at the meeting was Haydon Warner of Central Laboratories in the UK . He introduced us to the NIR calibration services that his company provides.  The results from the NIR can then be handled by a package called “SPECMAN” and passed directly into Format.

Feed Microscopy

Feed microscopy is the fastest and most practical method of quality assurance in the feed industry.    Both incoming ingredients and finished feeds can be screened.  Microscopy can be performed by every laboratory with little effort.  In all likelihood, it could have prevented the contamination of pet food with melamine.

We have recently acquired two tools to help us come to grips with feed microscopy.  The first is a book “Feed Microscopy: Atlas for the microscopic examination of feed containing vegetable and animal products.” written by Hans Klein and Richard Marquard and published by Agrimedia, GmbH , Germany .  This excellent text covers the basics of the techniques of testing feed as well as a comprehensive “atlas” of each of the ingredients and contaminants that you would be likely to encounter when examining a sample.

We have also bought a small, inexpensive digital microscope, called the XQ5, through amazon.com. This instrument not only allows you to evaluate a feed but also to take digital images of your findings.  The image quality is however a little disappointing.

Fishmeal

In the January 2007 edition of the Feed Technology Update (http://www.aquafeed.com), Andrew Jackson, the Technical Director of the International Fishmeal and Oil Organisation has given an excellent overview of the fishmeal and fish oil industries.

The recent increase in the fishmeal price, coupled with the continued strong growth of aquaculture has led to concerns over the dependence of aquaculture on fishmeal products.  The long-term sustainability of aquaculture is being questioned.  This trend will also affect those of us involved in traditional animal production.

Aquaculture has taken an increasing share of global fishmeal production.  In 2002, it used 45% of the available fishmeal and this had grown to 57% by 2006.  The use in poultry diets has dropped from 22% to only 14% in the same period.

The production of fish products has remained constant at around 6 million tons for fishmeal and 1 million tons for fish oil for the past 20 years.  However, there can be a significant reduction in supply when South American fish catches are influenced by the el Niño phenomenon.  Supply may drop by as much as 20%. South Africa has experienced a poor fish catch over the past year. In 2006 the Peruvian Government, acting on advice from the fisheries scientists, reduced the anchovy fishing quota.

It seems logical to assume that there is little opportunity for the industry to achieve any sustainable growth in production, and that periodic shortfalls in supply will continue. What this means to those of us involved in animal agriculture (as opposed to aquaculture) is that while there may be an increase in fishmeal supply in the short term, fish products are likely to be in short supply in the long term, making its use in animal agriculture less and less likley.

Bad Managers

The December edition of SAA’s in flight magazine carried an article by Margaret Heffernan called 10 Habits of Incompetent Managers.  She has identified 10 hallmarks of incompetence in managers, which I feel are worth repeating here.

1. Bias against action: There are always plenty of reasons not to take a decision, reasons to wait for more information, more opinions, more options. Real leaders display a consistent bias for action.
2. Secrecy:  The lover of secrecy has trouble being honest and is afraid of letting peers have the information they need to challenge him or her.  Secrets make companies political, anxious and full of distrust.
3. Oversensitivity: An inability to be direct and honest with staff is a critical warning sign.  Can your manager see a problem, address it headlong and move on?  Problems that are not resolved will grow.
4. Love of procedure: Managers who stick to the rulebook, to points of order and who refer to their colleagues by their titles have forgotten that rules and processes exist to expedite business, not ritualise it.  Love of procedure often masks and ability to prioritise.
5. Preference for weak candidates: People often feel threatened by over competent staff and don’t have the self confidence to employ people better than themselves.
6. Focus on small tasks:  Often people will take on small tasks (and do them well) as a displacement activity to hide the fact that they cannot do their real jobs.
7. Allergy to deadlines:  A manager who cannot set and stick to deadlines cannot honour commitments.  A failure to set and meet deadlines also means that no one can ever feel a true sense of achievement.  You cannot celebrate milestones if there are not any.
8. Inability to hire former employees:  Every good manager has a team of alumni, eager to join the team again – if they don’t, smell a rat.
9. Addiction to consultants:  A common but expensive way to put off making a decision is to hire consultants who can recommend 
10. several alternatives.  While figuring these out, the managers do not have to do anything, making the organisation poorer but not any smarter.  When the consultant leaves, he/she takes a fee together with an increase in their own level of expertise.
11. Long Hours:  Bad managers work very long hours.  They think this is a brand of heroism but it is probably the single biggest hallmark of incompetence.  A manager who cannot manage his/her own time should not be managing anyone else.

Rick Kleyn

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Reducing Feed Costs

Feed costs can be reduced by employing the correct nutrition and formulation skills.  Nutritionists need to consider what they are currently doing with regards the ingredients used, matrix values, feed specifications and feed formulation techniques.

At the 2003 Multi-State poultry conference, Dr. Jeffre Firman of the University of Missouri presented a paper entitled Computer Formulation of Low Protein Diets for Turkeys.  Within this paper is a section dealing with some practical ways of reducing formulation (feed) costs.  I thought that it would be a good idea to use this information as a basis, but then to add some of my own ideas.

Open your mind to new possibilities: Many nutritionists are largely self-taught as regards feed formulation.  It is simply not possible for Universities to provide the kind of experience that a formulator requires. It is easy to get stuck in a rut with our formulas and not look closely enough at what we are feeding.  A fresh perspective is always valuable. 

Ingredients must conform: A diet is only as good as the ingredients used in its manufacture. All of our ingredients must conform to the quality parameters we set.  These would include nutrient content and variability, the physical form of the ingredient and it’s biological quality.  Know the origin of your ingredients! You need to know not just the country, but the factory of origin as well.  Poor quality ingredients are probably the single biggest cause of feed related losses.

Evaluate and use feed additives carefully:  There is a wide range of feed additives on the market.  Although they may not always represent good value for money, ignore them at your peril.  A good example of a “new” additive is phytase.  This is an ingredient that has allowed for a reduction of the phosphorus levels in our diets at considerable cost saving.  As a rule of thumb - for every Rand spent on an additive, expect two Rand in return.  

Start with few constraints:   Nutrient and ingredient constraints are part of the formulation process.  Each limiting constraint leads to an increase in the cost of the diet. Constraints can always be added back after we have seen the effects that they have on cost.

Make use of ranging data:  Modern feed formulation programs will mostly show a “Range” of ingredient costs between which the formulation will not change.  The nutritionist can use this information for both buying and formulation decisions.  The use of some form of parametric evaluation is useful in this instance.

Look for pressure on the matrix:  When an ingredient or nutrient bumps up against a constraint there is often a reason.  This may well have to do with the specification of the diet itself, but equally could be caused by an error in the matrix.  Check your matrix for those nutrients that are limiting and make sure that the values used are within normal tolerances.

Use the correct ingredients in the correct diets:  Under commercial conditions, ingredients may be in short supply, or very expensive which is much the same thing.  The nutritionist therefore needs to decide where best to use restricted ingredients. For example, if Full Fat Soya supplies are limited, it makes little sense to use it in Broiler Starter or Layer diets – rather use it in high density Broiler Grower and Finisher diets.  The use of Multi-Mix techniques eliminates the guesswork from this particular aspect.  Optimising an entire range of diets, bearing both their relative volumes and ingredient availability, and can lead to a 2 to 3% saving in costs.

Re-examine your formulations routinely:  When things are going well we tend to forget to reevaluate our formulations.  They may not need to be changed, but a regular evaluation of ingredient costs, ingredient quality and ultimate animal performance is always a good idea. Always use your experienced nutritionists to check the work of the formulator.  Do this on the feed formulation system and not just on paper.

Use enough premixes: For logistical reasons we are often tempted to use a limited range of premixes.  Ideally, we should use different premixes for every diet, so realizing significant savings.  For example, we tend to use a Broiler Grower premix in Broiler Finisher diets as a routine practice.  

Look carefully at safety factors: Safety factors are a commonly used method of ensuring that all nutrient requirements are met.  They are a way of overcoming the variation in the nutrient levels of ingredients. By reducing the variability of ingredients or accurately monitoring incoming ingredient quality, safety factors can be reduced or eliminated.  

There are a number of techniques thar fall under the heading – Use the Correct Feed Specifications.  This is a huge topic and will only be dealt with briefly.  In practical terms, nutritionists are often faced with a dilemma of choosing which diets to feed. The breeding companies (who supply the genotypes that we use) publish values but they make little allowance for maximizing returns or for local conditions. Other sources would include recent scientific literature and old standards such as the NRC (1994).  Mostly, these are of little help, because commercial nutritionists are only interested in the level of animal performance that will lead to maximum profit.  All decisions regarding feed specifications  need to be made on this basis.

Use meaningful nutrients: Costs can be reduced by using the appropriate nutrient profiles when formulating.  Formulating diets using digestible amino acids is now widely practiced. This saves money and makes using alternative ingredients easier and more predicatble in terms of animal performance.  It also enables us to more accurately determine and meet the animals’ requirements.  The use of more advanced energy systems, such as the Net Energy system for pigs could lead to additional savings.  Sadly, this data is still a little scant.

Use the correct nutrient density:   Diets that contain a high nutrient density (high in energy and amino acids) often result in the best growth and technical performance.  However, these diets may not always result in the most profitable production systems.  It is therefore essential to consider the value of enhanced performance relative to the cost of the diet.

Reduce crude protein constraints: The NRC protein constraint for a Turkey Starter ration is 28%. This can be safely reduced by several percentage units.  The same can be shown in the case of laying hens (SPESFEED News, Summer 2007).  Do not to reduce the protein specification of broiler diets too much as current research shows that there is a finite requirement for protein relative to lysine (amino acid).

Examine Calcium and Phosphorus levels: From a nutritional perspective, Ca and P are regarded together.  There is increasing pressure to reduce the levels of P in animal waste:  as a result of which there is a large amount of research currently being carried out in this regard.  From this, it would appear that for most monogastric animals the levels of P that are currently being used in our diets are too high.  There are sound reasons for reducing P and Ca levels in all of our diets.  The latest data being published by the breeding companies is at odds with these findings, with most companies increasing their recommendations for Ca and P.

Rick Kleyn

AFMA Forum

In March I attended the AFMA Forum at Sun City , along with most of the South African feed industry.  The full proceedings, are available, but I thought that perhaps it would be a good idea to just add a little of my own colour to the event.

The congress was to have be opened by the Minister of Agriculture who sadly had to cancel at the last minute.

The first day began with political commentator Dr Jan du Plessis telling us that AIDS was about to bring about a complete distortion of the population demographics in this country.  Eventually, a new society will be created and this will impact not only on our democracy but also our businesses.  Despite the fact that the government has the will to change many things, they will continue to have problems finding the capacity to implement them, and this will get worse.  Dr du Plessis was followed by Andrew Makenete, from ABSA Bank, who gave what I felt was a balanced view (not that everyone agreed with me) of BEE in the agricultural sector, which lags well behind most other business sectors in this regard. 

Human nutritionist, Jane Badham, gave an overview of how current socio-economic trends will impact on the way consumers will behave and consume food.  She pointed out that the feed industry needs to see itself as part of the human food chain and that we all need to work closer together.  Perhaps she has been giving this message to the AFMA board all along, because they unveiled their new logo at the event, and their new catch phrase is ‘Safer Feed for Safe Food’.

Speakers giving and overviews of the global and the Chinese feed industries took up the next session.  Erhard Briedenhann gave us his insights into the future of feed ingredient prices and the South African feed industry in general.  Erhard believes that the South African feed industry will continue to grow but at only 3 to 5% per annum.

In the final session of the day of the day, Jared Froetschner of DSM in the USA showed data indicating just how variable post pelting applications of micro-nutrients (in this case enzymes) can be.  The reason is simple.  The added micro-nutrient appears on the surface of the pellet, and pellets begin to break down at the surface.  This means that the fines often contain the lions share of the enzyme.

The second day was devoted to matters that had more to do with nutrition.  Dr Tom Tylutki discussed how ingredients were variable, often in a non-normal manner and that in the case of dairy nutrition there are interactions between nutrients and ingredients.  This makes it difficult to formulate properly using simple linear models (linear programming). He did concede that non-linear models are slow and difficult to use.  Next on the podium was Dr Dana Tomlinson who informed us that Zinc is used in over 300 functions in the body.  The use of organic Zinc and other minerals is very beneficial in the case of dairy cows.  Dr Jim Drouillard of Kansas State University gave an overview of some trends in feeding beef animals that included protecting the protein in soya oilcake, the use of beta-agonists and the use of encapsulation techniques to by-pass the rumen.

The final session of the meeting concerned poultry.  Dr Pim Langhout of Provimi was able to demonstrate how it is possible to ‘finger print’ the species of microorganisms in the gut of the chicken and how these varied depending on the level of performance being achieved on farm, the ingredients being fed and even the feed form.

Dave Burnham, an old friend of mine from University days, now working as a nutritionist for Aviagen in North America , talked about feeding broiler breeders.  He emphasized that birds consume nutrients - not feed specifications.  In most cases energy is the limiting component of the diet, and that overfeeding protein to breeding birds may well do more harm than good. Feed allocation will always be more important than feed specifications.

Rick Kleyn

VICTAM

Early in May, Walter and I attended Victam in Utrecht , The Netherlands.  For those of you who don’t know it, it is ‘the’ show for feed and pet food manufacturers.  The amount and sheer size of the equipment on display was most impressive.  This included most of the physical components of a feed/pet facility, but also included some sophisticated automatic packing equipment.  In the past there was a nutritionists hall, but sadly this was absent from this year’s event. We were struck by the absence of pharmaceutical companies and by the plethora of businesses selling alternatives to anti-biotics. 

Walter and I both attended the pet food forum.  There was a very interesting talk on the link between obesity in pet animal by Dr Beynin.  He was able to present data showing that dogs that were restrict fed (75% of the control group which were fed ad libitum) not only weighed 25% less but  were less likely have skeletal problems and would live longer.  In a cynical aside he did mention that it was questionable if a hungry dog (on a restricted diet) would actually want to live longer? A number of speakers covered trends in the pet food industry.  In essence, any changes that have already taken place and are likely to take place, are as a result of changes in human behaviour.  I have listed some of the issues below:

·        Pets are becoming more important because kids are getting older younger, and perversely, adults stay younger  longer.  All this creates “empty nests” that are often filled with pets.

·       Pets, along with their owners are living longer and getting more obese.

·      People are humanising their pets to a far greater extent, with 77% of survey respondants saying that this is likely to be the single most  important trend in the pet food industry in future.  Already there are human-style brands on the shelves: these include various sauces and condiments and even a beef flavoured dog beer.

·      There is a growing desire for indulgence and healthier products.  This would include functional foods, condition and breed specific diets and novel ingredients

·       Consumers are looking for convenience.

All of the above have lead to the ‘premiumisation’ of the pet food industry.  Sales of premium brands continue to grow worldwide.  The sales of so-called economic products have tended to remain much the same, with the mid range products being squeezed out of the market to some extent.

On the second day I attended the Provimi Seminar on Poultry production. M Doring of FEFAC told us that Europe currently manufactures 470 mil ton of feed per year (1 ton per resident). Dr Verbeke of the Erasmus University gave an interesting and entertaining talk on marketing. Paul Gerardy gave of good overview of NIR technology and it’s use in the feed industry.

Walter spent two days at the Aquaculture Seminar.  His overriding impression was that the aquaculture industry is growing at enormous speed and that nearly half the world’s fish are now farmed rather than wild caught.

Rick Kleyn